Cultural Show

We have been talk a lot about globalization, international business, outsourcing, etc. One thing I think that is missing from Friedman’s book is the cultural factor. He mentioned a lot of manufacturing jobs and even services are outsource to India, which is for the greater benefit of the world economy as the products and services will be produced in the country that has the best comparative advantage. To do so, one does not need to relocate to another country in order to serve the customers of another country, while still be able to live the lifestyle of their own culture.

Personally, I think there is a limited cultural experience you could get without really live or been to that country. For instance, I will not be able to understand the Indian cultural by just reading the books. And I don’t think I have a full grasp of Indian culture given that I’m in India for two weeks now and not until tonight, I’ve witness the beauty of this culture. Special thanks to the students at SDM-IMD for putting the show together for us. I really appreciated the great shows they had performed.
The bottom point is, although the world is inevitability become flatter, but I don’t think it will be as flat as a sheet of paper since there is the culture factor that we should consider, and consider it with a greater aspect.

Infosys

The minute we drove into the campus, we were all awed by how gorgeous this campus is, and there are four more buildings that are under construction now. As always, we had our presentation first and follow by the tour.

This presentation did not impress me at all. Instead, it gave me some negative gut feelings that I will rarely have. Before I say anything else, I want to insert a disclaimer here that everything I said in the following is pure personal opinion.

We watched a short clip about Infosys and towards the end of the clip, one of their Asian employees stated: “Infosys has helped me with my confidence” with her head look down and did not even look at the camera. I was thinking to myself, if she really have confident in her, won’t she be at least looking at the camera to show her confidence or maybe with a smile? She did not look happy or confident at all. Then, the presenter kept saying that Infosys is an employee based company and because the company has such a great value system that holds all of their 80,000 employees together. So one of my fellow classmates asked the presenter what is their value system, and the presenter could only give two out of their four values. And what’s more ironic is that this presenter is a trainer at Infosys for new hires. So my guess is if he didn’t know the GREAT value system that holds the employees together, then what about the employees he trained? The chances are they will not know the values of the company too. Then, the next question will be, what exactly do hold these employees together for Infosys?

Oh well, the presentation really turned me off. Later, we toured the fabulous campus they have in Mysore.

And nothing occurs to me that if I were one of the graduate students in India I will want to work for this company. On the counter side, I could see why all the graduate students want to work for Infosys. Infosys have all the training sessions structured and planned from morning to afternoon; they even have their evening life planned too; and weekends too. It is no doubt that the amount of capital Infosys spent on their employees are great, but whether this type of investment is for employee’s personal development or just to “program” their employees to company’s specifications is a matter that continuously concerns me.

Below is a picture taken from one of Infosys’s training room, which is the largest training room in the entire world, it has the capacity of training 9,000 people at once. The world has become flattener for Infosys as their employees could sit in one of these GREAT training rooms to get trained without going anywhere in the world. Sounds wonderful?

Taegu Tec

This morning, we got a guest speaker coming from Taegu Tec. It is a multinational company with the primary business in industrial cutting tools. Dr. Krishnan did mention some of the brands that they sell to U.S. and England, but I can’t exactly recall the names now.

It was a very interactive lecture. One thing that makes this lecture memorable was when Rajiv asked what the significant changes in India were for the past 7 years that make businesses optimistic for the future given that India’s infrastructure is not all that great compare to U.S. Although Rajiv did say that India has gone through lots of changes, but as we were coming from a developed nations cannot see. So, listened to another experienced individual's perspective on this was exciting to me.

He gave three reasons, but I can only recall two now. First, the open up of the Indian trade in 1998 saved the economy. Secondly, the current government’s contribution to the aviation system that makes it easier for citizens to travel, which I couldn’t agree more to. Indeed, I think India needs to make the entire infrastructure better, especially roads, so the travel will be easier for the citizens to commute from one place to the next. If the Berlin wall fell in order to spread democracy, then the infrastructure in India should be a piece of cake compare to Berlin wall. I know it does take time to make it happen, but I figure I need to sound my voice given all sorts of road conditions I’ve been on in India.

In addition, with the respect to the flatter world, transportation is one of the important factors to help the world to become flatter. So the suppliers could deliver their products on time, and the management could operate on just in time instead of just in case. I don’t think many businesspeople or tourists would enjoy the bumpy roads we have been on. It was bumpy!

Best Visit of All: Larson & Toubro

I have to admit that L&T was the best visit of all so far. The hospitality we received at this place was fantastic. There were at least 7 employees stood in front of the gate waiting for our arriving. The minute I walked into the door, I noticed a strong scent of perfume by the hallway. They must have sprayed something around the staircase that makes the entrance smells really good. Second thing I noticed was they putted a sign wrote: “Welcome Students from University of Minnesota”, which was very touching!

Not long after we arrived, they had a brunch buffet ready for us. The food was the best I had in the past 2 weeks. All the foods are very much adjusted to American taste and not much were spicy. Okay, what I can say about this company is more than their hospitalities.

Larson & Toubro (L&T) specialize in consulting, medical equipments, software development, etc. One thing that I found this company to be especially interesting to me is that L&T helps many India infrastructure projects such as building of the Mumbai Airport, bridges, roads, and dams. For a multinational company to help building a country’s infrastructure really shows their commitment to the country they are in. And this is exactly the point that the International Business textbook said in the foreign direct investment chapter, when a company makes that kind of commitment to a country, they are going to develop their employees to the greatest potential and contribute to the national economy as much as possible. L&T is a company that do as they said, and thus, never lose a customer of theirs ever before (and probably never will).

After we had tour the four building they have in Mysore campus, we sat down in a conference room for additional Q&A. Mr. Nagaraj, the leader of L&T EmSys group, showed his passion for his work that he has been doing for the past 30 plus years. He answered all the questions we had, and before we left, he presented the gifts to every one of us. I could almost guarantee that most of us enjoyed this visit and L&T is a company that deserves the respect they had from their customers, suppliers, and even American visitors.

Sandalwood Factory and Silk Factory: Monopoly v. Free Market

Today we visited a government operated sandalwood factory and a silk factory. I find these two factories could be taken the formal one as a monopolistic factory and the latter one as a free market factory.

Sandalwood factory is run by the government and the government owns every sandalwood tree in the city, even if a sandalwood tree grows on one’s personal property, the government would come in and lists the tree as theirs. This is definitely a 100% pure monopoly. The government could set whatever price they want to and sell in the market.

Whereas the silk factory, although it is also a government run factory, but it faces the competition from other silk factories. The government does not have a monopoly in silk. There are many places in the world that have access to silk and I guess that’s why the security at the silk factory is stricter than the sandalwood factory. Shortly after we entered the factory, Nancy told me the truth of stricter security was that the guard at the desk wants to possess his hierarchy of power. Isn’t this sound familiar to me? Just like Chandogya Upanishad says: “Power is superior to knowledge” (33) in Being Indian book.

2 Days at Kabini

For about ½ hour ride, we arrived at the Kabini River Lodge. It was a very beautiful resort. It is really peaceful, quit, and refresh. This is a vacation for me. This is a monkey I saw before I went to lunch. The baby monkey is so cute.

Around 4pm, we were off to the Safari. The ride to the jungle was very very bumpy. And according to Rajiv, this is their state road. I don’t think I have ever had such a bumpy ride in my life before. Once we arrived at the jungle, we saw a peacock right away. Later, I saw lots of animals and birds, but the most exciting part is the elephants.

There were three of them; two big ones and one small one. That was exciting. Then, our guide tried really hard to find us a tiger, but with no luck. We end up coming back later than rest of the group. What a fascinating journey! I will never forget this day.

A Tourist Day

For the past several days, I was busy with the sightseeing in Mysore. I will go through my experiences along with the pictures. The first place I visited is the temple on top of Chamundi Hill. This is an interesting visit. I have been to several temples before, and none of which required me to take the shoes off and go barefoot. Secondly, when we finally enter the temple to see the holy idol, we couldn’t get closer to the idol. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera that morning, so I don’t have any pictures I could post here. After the temple visit, we went back to SDM and practiced yoga. I have to admit that the yoga helped me to relax a bit especially due to the tight schedule we have throughout the weekend. Our next destination is the Mysore Palace.

This place is unreal. It is even more phenomenal at night time when all 96,000 lights are lit (I will post some night pictures later). Once I entered the palace, I couldn’t help myself, but kept looking up at the ceiling and was completely astonished by the amazing art this palace had. And yes, I have to go barefoot in the palace again, that was a first.

After the palace, we went to the St. Philomena church. I believe this church is the oldest church in Mysore. We didn’t spend much time here.

Next, we had the lunch at the Tipu Sultan’s summer palace. This palace is a different from a normal palace. This palace does not have any kitchen or bedrooms because this is purely for meeting only. Although the palace does not have a kitchen, we still managed to have a lunch at the palace, only we picnic in the garden. After this visit, we went to the bird sanctuary. You cannot believe that only 1 hour outside of Mysore is this beautiful sanctuary. There were so many big bats that I have never seen before. At first, I was in doubt whether these are bats or not. Their size could certainly be birds if one looks from a distance. I also saw some migrated birds from America. The tour guide told me that these birds do not need passports to enter the country, which I thought these birds really make this world flat, since there's nothing could stop them from coming and going to a different country. I wonder if the U.S. government and the Indian government need to sign some sort of treaty to allow these birds to freely enter a country like the goods and services treaties that they always signed between the nations : ) This is not it. When I got into the boat for a boat ride, I got so close to a crocodile that I have never come so close before in my life. It was exciting and nerve-racking experience!

Well, my next destination was Brindavan gardens. This was a busy place. Since this place charge for taking camera in, the group decided to count on Rajiv for pictures. We were just in time for sunset at the KRS dam. It was gorgeous! It was close to 7pm when we left the Brindavan gardens and we have to rush back to Mysore Palace again to see the lights lit. I can’t believe what’s in front of my eyes (just see the pictures below).

That’s it for my busy tourist sightseeing in Mysore and I have to get ready for my next journey to Kabini River Lodge.